On the night of September 5, 2018 a court in Wiesbaden ordered the Region of Hessen to ensure Diesel bans in the five biggest cities in the country’s financial hotspot. By February 2019 all diesel (and petrol Euro 1 and 2)) cars of Euro4 and lower wil be banned from city centres. By September 2019 Euro5 cars will be added to this list. The court argued that as other regulations or incentives failed to produce any meaningful NOx reduction immediate action was necessary. According to Hessen’s transport minister Klaus Oesterling ” citizens now not only need to deal with the lack of action of the car industry but also of the Federal government.” The decision came after a federal court in Leipzig decided that diesel bans in German cities are allowed: the German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe is bringing more than 2000 cities and regions to court on charges of failing to take action to ensure that EU air quality standards are met. According to the German ministry of Environment air quality standards of max. 40 mg of NOx/m3 are not met in 67 German cities. The city of Stuttgart decided to ban all diesel cars below Euro 4 by January 2019 in Hamburg these rules will be implemented by May 2018.
In the meantime the European car industry on September 6 2018 sent stark warning to the EU on their sector’s perceived employment crisis if the new 30% CO2 emission reduction and electric vehicle targets become effective in 2020. They feel 20% is a more realistic target. Electric car manufacturing and maintenance is much less labour-intensive and they have around six times fewer moving parts than conventional cars and 60% fewer spare parts.
This did not move the EU Parliament who voted on September 10 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030 and an interim goal of 15% for 2025 to 20%. It also vowed that the Commission’s target of reducing fleet-wide emissions by 30% was insufficient and plumped instead for 45%, as well as increasing . Since the Commission published its proposal in November 2017, industry groups have railed against the overall CO2 target, as well as over the details of the proposed rules. MEPs also voted to increase sales targets for low and zero emission vehicles to 20% for 2025 and 40% for 2030, as well as introducing a penalty scheme for carmakers that fail to hit those goals, a move welcomed by the European Consumer Organisation.